[Mike McCarty]

Chasing kids around a house is a little like the dog that chases the bus. What does he think he's going to do when he catches it?

Whether doing this at your house, their house, or at the mall, your mission is to find the best light (or spot to set up your light equipment) and bring the subject into that light. Ha, you say. But they won't stop running around!

What I do is get my equipment set up where I need it to be and then I declare that we are ready and this is where I need your kids to sit. Then I sit behind my camera. Generally, one of two things will happen. Either the parent will continue to make excuses about how the darlings are just trying to work off the effects of all those twinkies that the ex-husband fed them, or, the kids will be brought to you.

It's a battle of wills. The parent hasn't a clue as to what you need. They are perfectly willing to watch you chase their kids around the house, it looks perfectly natural to them. This transfers the burden from them to you. What you end up with is a lot of pictures of kids mugging in bad light and a lot of futile editing of poor reference material.

I say hold your ground and stare back at them from behind your camera. If the burden remains on the parent they will more than likely take control. Then, after about 30 minutes or so of mutual stare downs, I usually cave and start chasing them around the house. What can I say.

I have to tell this story. When I was about 8-10 years old I would walk to and from school (up hill both ways). Most days, as I walked home, the ice cream truck (the one that puttered along playing "Oh Suzanna" on the loud speaker) would be cruising the neighborhood. On this particular day I decided that I would run behind the truck, jump on the back bumper, and wave to my friends as the ice cream man unknowingly drove me home.

As I was running about half speed, and just within reach of the truck, he slammed on the brakes and I slammed in to the back of the truck. I came to in the middle of the street and saw the truck about a block away still playing "oh don't you cry for me." I never told my mom thinking that I would get into real trouble for denting the back of that man's truck with my head.